The lost city of Mariupol: Shocking satellite images lay bare the extent of Putin’s wrath

Shocking new images have revealed the extent of the carnage in the city of Mariupol which has endured two months of constant bombardment amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The southern port city, which Putin sees as a key strategic position in the eastern Donbas region on the Sea of Azov, has been under siege for more than eight weeks as Russian forces have conducted round the clock bombing raids and indiscriminate missile strikes on military, administrative and civilian targets alike.

Now with the war well into its ninth week, the once vibrant coastal metropolis with a pre-war population of around 450,000 has been largely reduced to rubble amid Putin’s wrath, and not a single row of houses appears to have survived the onslaught without sustaining at least some damage.

More than 90 percent of the city’s infrastructure has been severely damaged, while 45 per cent of it has been completely destroyed according to mayor Vadym Boychenko.

There are now just 100,000 people living among the bombed out ruins. More than three quarters of the pre-war population have fled and tens of thousands are believed to have died according to Ukrainian authorities.

Satellite images released yesterday of the city centre by Maxar Technologies reveal the true scale of the destruction.

Entire blocks have been completely decimated, while the Donetsk regional theatre, which once provided shelter to around 400 Ukrainian civilians until it was targeted in a direct strike by Russian missiles, can be seen totally caved in.

Other images showed rows of what appear to be freshly dug mass graves along a cemetery on the edge of the city, as well as the dilapidated exterior of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol’s harbour.

The factory remains the only part of the city not under total Russian control and its network of underground rooms and tunnels constitute the final stronghold of a small contingent of Ukrainian fighters, along with roughly 1,000 civilians sheltering from Putin’s bombs.